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Progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said Wednesday that immigrants are needed in America because they, among other things, "pick the food we eat," "clean our homes," and "rebuild our communities after climate disasters."

Jayapal's comments which some GOP colleagues and others criticized as stereotyping immigrants came during a House Judiciary Committee markup of legislation pertaining to the immigration crisis, known as the Border Security and Enforcement Act of 2023.

"Trump's policies, combined with his anti-immigrant rhetoric, made us less safe, less competitive in attracting the best and the brightest, and undermined our most basic human values of compassion and kindness," Jayapal said as she argued for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants residing in America.

CBP SEIZES $21.1 MILLION WORTH OF FENTANYL PILLS CONCEALED WITHIN TRACTOR-TRAILER CARRYING GREEN BEANS

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said immigrants are needed in America because they, among other things, "pick the food we eat," "clean our homes" and "rebuild our communities after climate disasters." (Stefan Klein/ullstein bild, Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

"So let's all take a minute to recognize the hypocrisy of every anti-immigrant debate," she continued. "This country needs immigrants to survive. Immigrants pick the food we eat, rebuild our communities after climate disasters, help construct our infrastructure, power our small business economy, clean our homes, and look after the most precious in our families our children and our elders."

"They strengthen our economy, our food supply chain, and our ability to compete," Jayapal said of immigrants as she highlighted the "labor shortage" in America.

Jayapal's comments quickly garnered criticism on social media from FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

"Jayapal using the tired old, Who will clean our homes? defense on illegal immigration. Limousine liberalism at its finest," the group wrote in a tweet.

MAYORKAS COMES FACE TO FACE WITH FAMILY OF GRANDMOTHER, 7-YEAR-OLD GIRL KILLED BY HUMAN SMUGGLER NEAR BORDER

"WOW! Just wow! Democrat Jayapal defending mass illegal immigration of Biden admin," another social media user wrote.

Jayapal's remarks also drew the ire of GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who is the first Mexican American woman elected to Congress from Florida.

"Its gross stereotyping and why so many Hispanics leave for the GOP," Luna told Fox News about Jayapal's remarks.

Jayapal's comments come as the federal government continues to grapple with large influxes of migrants entering the U.S. via the border with Mexico.

There were 191,899 encounters along the southern border in March, down 14% from 222,574 in March 2022, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced Monday. It marks a 23% increase from the 156,138 encounters seen in February, although increases in encounters are typical as the spring and summer months arrive. Over two-thirds (69%) of all encounters were of single adults.

Border Patrol encounters of migrants along the southwest border entering illegally between ports of entry last month 162,317 in March are down 23% from March 2022 (211,181) and 4% from March 2021 (169,216). An administration official also noted that the increase in Border Patrol encounters between February and March is lower (25%) than the prior two years (33% and 73% for 2022 and 2021).

Border Patrol agents monitor a section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall near Otay Mesa between San Diego and Tijuana on Jan. 12, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

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While numbers in 2023 have so far been approximately the same or lower than 2022, it is unclear if that will change once the Title 42 public health order ends on May 11. The order, implemented in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been used by both the Trump and Biden administrations to quickly expel hundreds of thousands of migrants at the border and has become a key tool in the ongoing migrant crisis, which is now into its third year. In March, 87,662 (46%) of encounters ended in a Title 42 expulsion.

Jayapal's office did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.

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Jayapal criticized for saying immigrants 'needed' in America to 'pick the food we eat' and 'clean our homes' - Fox News

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By Carl Campanile, Bernadette Hogan and Stephen Yang

April 18, 2023 | 6:13pm

Theres no room at the inn except for migrants.

Three more hotel sites in Queens are being used as sanctuary shelters to help house the seemingly never-ending flood of southern-border migrants into New York City.

The citys Department of Homeless Services has awarded a total of nearly $17 million in new contracts to two social-service providers to manage a pair of new migrant shelters: one at the former Ramada Wyndham at 164-40 Hillside Ave. in Jamaica and the other at the site of the former Marriott Courtyard at 90-10 Ditmars Blvd. in East Elmhurst, near the Grand Central Parkway and LaGuardia Airport.

Meanwhile, Queens City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino said she received less than eight hours notice from local officials that the Anchor Inn on Northern Boulevard in Bayside in her district has been converted into an emergency migrant shelter.

The cost of that contract was not immediately known.

Mayor Eric Adams has said the citys tab to house and care for the avalanche of migrants deluging the Big Apple since spring 2022 could hit $4.3 billion by the end of 2024.

He recently ordered Big Apple agencies to slash their spending to help pay the mind-boggling bill.

Paladino, whose borough has been particularly swamped by the newly arriving migrants, said fatigue and frustration are setting in among local pols and residents.

Make no mistake, I will continue to work to have this site closed at the earliest possible opportunity, she said of the Anchor Inn in her district.

This action was taken with no community input or transparency, which is unacceptable.

The Republican councilwoman said President Bidens lax border-enforcement policies are only hurting New Yorkers.

Our neighborhoods deserve better, and frankly, the migrants deserve an orderly immigration process, not an open borders fiasco, she wrote in a tweet.

This cannot continue.

Were spending billions that we simply do not have, all thanks to totally misguided open borders and sanctuary policies. Every New Yorker suffers because of this especially immigrant communities which are already struggling with employment and housing issues.

As of April 16, more than 55,300 people illegally crossing the Mexico-US border and then claiming asylum have been processed and provided city services, including shelter at city-financed or supervised facilities, over the past year.

More than 34,600 migrants are currently being caredfor by thecity, according to Adams office.

The city has opened a staggering 103 emergency shelters and eight Humanitarian Emergency Response and ReliefCenters just to aid the migrants virtually all of the sites in privately owned hotels or locations or former inns.

The homeless services provider Midway Living was awarded a $12.376 million contract from the city to run the shelter at the former Marriott Courtyard in EastElmhurst. The contract was first reported in Tuesdays City Record, the paper of city government.

A rep for the city Department of Social Services/Homeless Services said the shelter opened in February and that the local community was notified.

The Neighborhood Association for Inter-Cultural Affairs secured a $4.483 million contract from DHS to operate the sanctuary shelter at the former Ramada Wyndham in Jamaica.

The Anchor Inn in Bayside will function as a shelter for the foreseeable future, not as a commercial hotel, a staffer also confirmed.

We are not taking customers right now, a source at the hotel said.

The Anchor Inn already has taken in 30 migrants and is expecting to shelter 70 more.

It will take all of us to respond to this unprecedented influx of asylum seekers that New York City has seen since last year, a City Hall rep said in a statement to The Post.

Our administration, New Yorkers from every borough, community organizations, and our faith partners have all stepped up to the challenge, but as weve said for months, were in dire need of additional support from our state and federal partners to address this national crisis.

We are committed to working with local elected officials and keeping them informed about new emergency shelters that we must open in an effort to comply with the law and ensure we do not allow families to sleep on the street.

Even lefty progressives including city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams have agreed with Adams that the Biden Administration and Gov. Kathy Hochul must do more to help the city grapple with the migrants crisis.

Williams will join members of New Yorks Congressional delegation and immigration activists in the US Capitol in DC on Wednesdayto call for federal action on an agenda to address the immediate asylum-seeker problem, as well as call for longer-term immigration reform.

New York has been the city most impacted by the recent surge of asylum seekers, with more than 50,000 people moving through the citys intake systems in the last year, the public advocates office said in a statement.

Public Advocate Williams and other elected officials representing New York City have called for both state and federal aid to help support the newest New Yorkers, and are extending that call beyond funding to include measures that would ease the transition for migrants, establish a number of support services, and reform an inhumane and failing system of immigration infrastructure and enforcement.

The influx of migrants also has become a big public health concern, with city Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan recently warning that a startling 50% of migrants streaming into the Big Apple are not vaccinated against the contagious and potentially deadly poliovirus and just as many may not be immune to tuberculosis.

He also said there have been outbreaks of chickenpoxat migrant shelters.

Vasan urged doctors to ramp up vaccinations of the new arrivals to bolster public health.

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3 more Queens hotel sites being used as 'sanctuary' shelters to house migrants - New York Post

On April 17, CBP released its latest border encounter numbers, for the month of March. Border Patrol apprehensions at the Southwest border rose, just as I said they would back when President Biden was crowing about his latest border enforcement efforts during his February State of the Union (SOTU) address. The important number now, however, is total CBPs encounters which really jumped. Those numbers reveal what the administrations actually up to.

Border Patrol Apprehensions Rise. In March, Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 162,000 illegal migrants at the Southwest border, up from just over 130,000 in February, and an increase of more than 33,000 over January.

Thats an almost 25 percent increase over the month before, and a greater than 25 percent increase over January. More saliently, however, there were on average 5,236 migrants apprehended daily in March, compared to 4,644 in February and 4,159 in January a trendline not trending in the administrations favor.

The reason why I cite Januarys numbers is because those are the ones that DHS trumpeted after the president issued his January 5 New Border Enforcement Actions.

For example, as CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller stated in a February 10 press release: The January monthly operational update clearly illustrates that new border enforcement measures are working, with the lowest level of Border Patrol encounters between Ports of Entry since February of 2021.

That was all true, except: (1) the Biden administration was only doing better at the border compared to its own, dire prior performance there; and (2) illegal entries traditionally reach their yearly low in the month of January, as I explained shortly after those numbers were released when I posited that the apprehension numbers were sure to increase.

And, as these figures reveal, I was right. In fact, Border Patrol made more Southwest border apprehensions last month than they had in any March between FY 2001 (before Congress beefed up border security following the September 11th terrorist attacks) and Bidens own second month in office.

Still, CBP fell all over itself in its latest monthly operational update in explaining how great it did in March (while channeling my observations in that February post):

This increase in encounters from February to March is typical, as winter temperatures rise with the approaching spring, but less compared to prior years. Border Patrols 162,317 encounters along the southwest border in March 2023, however, were down 23% from March 2022 (211,181) and down 4% from March 2021 (169,216). Additionally, the rate of increase from February to March 2023 (25%) for Border Patrols southwest encounters was less than the rate of increase from February to March 2022 (33%) and February to March 2021 (73%).

Dont let the cherrypicked stats and fancy math fool you. Bidens only doing better than he had been at the Southwest border (and its questionable he could have done worse), and even then, not by much.

A Spike in Encounters. That said, the stats are worse than they appear, because CBPs total Southwest border encounters are extremely troubling.

In this context, encounters are the total of Border Patrol apprehensions and inadmissible aliens stopped by CBP officers at the border ports of entry.

In March, CBP encountered nearly 192,000 illegal migrants at the Southwest border, an increase of more than 18,000 compared to March 2021, and a higher monthly rate of encounters than in half of the 26 months of the Biden administration all during a period of the year when illegal migration should still be relatively low.

Pulling away from the Southwest border and taking a broader view, the March encounter numbers are even worse yet. Nationwide, CBP encountered nearly 258,000 inadmissible aliens last month, the sixth worst monthly showing for a president who has overseen the worst migrant crisis by far in American history, and a nearly 21 percent increase compared to February.

Part of that spike in CBPs nationwide encounter numbers has to do with the brewing but still smaller migrant crisis at the Northern border with Canada.

Total encounters there last month (15,774) as well as Border Patrol Northern border apprehensions for March (974) set monthly records for the last four fiscal years. In fact, agents apprehended more Northern border illegal entrants in March than in all of FY 2021 (916).

What really moved the needle in March on CBP encounters, however, were various extra-legal efforts by the Biden administration to hide the true scope of the disaster at the Southwest border.

One of those efforts is a program to provide 30,000 would-be illegal migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba monthly with two-year grants of parole, in essence periods those aliens could live and work here without any statutory right to do so.

That its illegal is beside the point (20 states are suing the Biden administration in Texas v. U.S. to shut down the program on various grounds, not least of which is the lack of a plan to force those aliens out when the two-year period ends) as the administration promotes its efficiency in deterring nationals of those countries from crossing the border illegally.

The problem is that they are still crossing the border illegally, albeit with a sheet of paper through a port of entry, and CBP thus must still count them as encounters.

While Border Patrol agents at the Southwest border apprehended just 3,811 nationals of those four countries in March (down from more than 54,000 in March 2022), almost 39,000 others were deemed inadmissible by CBP officers at the ports of entry: 10,698 at the Southwest border ports; 155 at the Northern border ports; and the rest at various international airports around the United States.

Many if not the vast majority of those aliens were given parole under this Biden policy (just 667 nationals of those countries were stopped at the ports last March), and note that the only reason why they are getting paroled (and included in the encounter totals) is because theyre not legally allowed to be admitted, and are therefore inadmissible.

Feel like youre getting snookered yet? It gets worse.

Thats because another aspect of the Biden administrations plan to hide its border disaster is allowing would-be illegal entrants to schedule interviews at the ports of entry seeking exceptions to expulsion under Title 42, using the CBP One app.

As I recently explained, more than 99 percent of the illegal migrants scheduling port appointments with the app at the Southwest border are allowed to enter, nearly all with either a Notice to Appear (NTA, the charging document in removal proceedings) or on parole. Dont expect any of them to leave.

The administration has no power whatsoever to run this scheme, but again that hasnt stopped it from doing so. In March, more than 29,500 aliens were deemed inadmissible at the Southwest ports of entry, the second highest monthly total in the last four fiscal years (in December, CBP officers clocked 30,302 encounters there).

Given that those March figures represent a 160 percent increase over CBP Southwest border port encounters in March 2022 (and a 628 percent increase compared to March 2021), be assured that more than half of those encounters involved would-be illegal migrants who scheduled appointments with the CBP One app.

Whats Worse? Its hard to decide which is worse the fact that the Biden administration is allowing millions of illegal aliens to live and work the United States despite Congress statutory limits, or the lengths to which its going to hide that fact. Americans dont like having their humanitarian instincts abused, but they really hate being gaslighted.

More:
Illegal Entries Rose in March - Immigration Blog

FIRST ON FOX: Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee are marking the completion of 100 days in charge of the high-profile committee, during which they say they have made a running start on "well overdue" oversight of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on issues such as the border crisis, counterterrorism and the threat from China.

"Last Congress, Democrats largely ignored many significant homeland security issues that impact Americans across the country," Chairman Mark Green said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

"Over the first 100 days of a Republican Majority, the House Committee on Homeland Security carried out well overdue oversight actions to hold the Biden administration accountable for two years worth of damage to our homeland security," he said.

HOMELAND SECURITY REPUBLICANS TO TURN UP THE HEAT ON MAYORKAS AFTER BORDER PATROL CHIEF'S EARTH-SHATTERING TESTIMONY

March 15, 2023: Rep. Mark Green questions Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz. (Screenshot)

Republicans had eyed issues like the ongoing migrant crisis as some of their top priorities ahead of taking control of the House in January. The crisis has exploded under the Biden administration with over 1.7 million migrant encounters in FY 2021 and more than 2.3 million in FY 2022.

While the administration has outlined a hemisphere-wide crisis that it says it is dealing with by opening legal asylum pathways that were decimated under the prior administration, while highlighting a decrease in numbers in the last few months, Republicans have pointed to the policies implemented by the Biden administration and the leadership of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas arguing that the policies have fueled the historic surge.

Having spent much of 2022 promising to take the administration to task on the crisis, Republicans have so far made the crisis a key area of focus in 2023. Republicans say that under their leadership, the committee has conducted over 340 oversight activitiesrelated to Homeland Security issues -- including 230 briefings and meetings, 23 oversight and document requests letters, over a dozen site visits and seven hearings.

BORDER PATROL CHIEF SAYS DHS DOESN'T HAVE OPERATIONAL CONTROL OF US BORDER

March 15, 2023: Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz testifies at a Homeland Security hearing. (Screenshot)

Additionally, the committee has launched 19 investigations into issues such as border wall construction contracts, DHS' approach to tackling alleged misinformation and disinformation, the Chinese threat to homeland security, and the use of alternatives to detention (ATD) and parole to allow migrants into the U.S.

Perhaps the most striking example of the oversight on the migrant crisis was a bombshell hearing in March, during which Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told lawmakers that the agency did not have operational control of the border, and indicated that a number of sectors were at crisis levels of migrant traffic. He also stood by agents who were falsely accused of whipping migrants in 2021.

Lawmakers also made 8 site visits related to the crisis and hearings that included a visit to Pharr, Texas with Ortiz. The visits are expected to help inform lawmakers in creating legislation to solve the crisis.

Additionally, amid growing concerns about the threat from the Chinese Communist Party, the committee had conducted a dozen oversight actions including hearings, briefings and two bills to protect academic institutions and national security intelligence from Chinese influence.

BIDEN ADMIN PAUSES KEY ASYLUM SHAKEUP AHEAD OF TITLE 42'S EXPIRATION NEXT MONTH

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On other national security threats, Republicans identify over 80 moves to strengthen cyber defenses, including meetings with the executive branch and stakeholders including those in the private sector, and over a dozen briefings and site visits related to counterterrorism.

The work of the high-profile committee is likely only to increase in future months, with growing tensions between China and Taiwan and the looming end to the Title 42 public health order on May 11 -- which officials have feared with lead to a fresh spike in migrants at the southern border over the summer months.

Originally posted here:
House Homeland Republicans mark 100 days of well overdue oversight on border crisis, China - Fox News

To seemingly every American except Biden administration officials, there is an ongoing humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border. In just 26 months, the Biden administration has allowed approximately 4 million illegal aliens into American communities a number larger than the population of the city of Los Angeles. When confronted with these realities, administration officials have continuously downplayed the situation and offered numerous excuses, including blaming the previous administration and falsely claiming they need new laws to solve the problem.

However, the truth is that ample authority already exists to implement robust policies that discourage human traffickers from bringing illegal immigrants across the border and impose meaningful consequences on anybody who disregards the rule of law. This is exactly what we accomplished in the Trump administration. Unfortunately, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas refuses to use his discretionary authority to secure the border, so House Republicans are calling the Biden administrations bluff by introducing the Border Security and Enforcement Act, legislation designed to secure the border, end human trafficking, and defeat the cartels.

The Biden administration would have the American people believe that border security simply means hiring more personnel to process migrants faster. But I believe border security requires a combination of building the physical border wall system, enforcing current immigration law, and reforming our broken asylum system. If you believe that the heavily exploited asylum system works just fine, then you accept the status quo and will likely oppose this border security package. However, if you think changes are needed, as I do, you should welcome this effort to end asylum fraud and the exploitation of vulnerable migrants.

Heres whats in the bill and why I believe its a good first step.

This seminal legislation curbs abuse of the asylum system by raising the standard for establishing credible fear. And for those who do pass the standard, it mandates detention or resumption of the highly successful Remain in Mexico policy. Currently, the asylum system is easily exploited by economic migrants and trafficking networks because the initial screening process for illegal aliens apprehended at the border known as the credible fear interview is easily passed, even with the most dubious of asylum claims. Under Biden administration policies, those who establish credible fear around 80% of migrants are released into American communities even though fewer than 15% will ultimately qualify for asylum. This incentivizes asylum fraud as the easiest ticket into the U.S. while delaying the ability to grant humanitarian relief to those persecuted migrants who are entitled to it under the law. The result of these provisions will be fewer bogus claims clogging up the immigration court system and a higher percentage but lower total number of aliens who are granted asylum after passing the credible fear test. It will also reduce the time between when an alien is apprehended at the border and when they receive humanitarian relief.

The House Judiciary Committee is also seeking to end the cruel Biden administration policies that have incentivized the exploitation of the most vulnerable migrants. Various legal loopholes make it difficult to promptly return unaccompanied alien children unless they are Mexican or Canadian. The Biden administration has recklessly implementedpoliciestoquicklyhand these migrant kids over to sponsors withoutvettingthem to the degree you saw during the Trump presidency. This has created the horrific yet preventable scenario of exploited children being handed off by the federal government to another trafficker who subjects these minors to a dark life of sex slavery and debt bondage. The border bill also closes this loophole that has traumatized untold hundreds of thousands of migrant children over the years. Another loophole has minimized the enforcement consequences against migrant families apprehended at the border. What results is a nefarious cottage industry where bad actors recycle migrant children to create fraudulent families to take advantage of being allowed into American communities. The border legislation ends this heinous practice.

Additionally, the committees bill reins in the parole authority that DHS Secretary Mayorkas is exploiting to hide the extent of the border crisis. Parole is supposed to be a narrow authority that allows the DHS secretary to allow a visa-less or inadmissible alien into the U.S., but only on a case-by-case basis for either urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. Instead, Secretary Mayorkas is abusing this authority by creating unlawful nationality-based parole programs that redirect illegal aliens from the border to ports of entry with the benefit to the administration of no longer showing up in the monthly border apprehension numbers. The Border Security and Enforcement Act will put an end to this illegal use of the parole authority and prevent future administrations from circumventing the eligibility requirements established by Congress for legal immigration visa categories.

The Judiciary Committee is offering workable solutions to solve the crisis created by the Biden administrations failed border strategy. Will the administration pivot and embrace this legislation or continue to place politics over the sound policies the American people deserve?

Read this Op-Ed in Real Clear Politics here.

Chad Wolf is the former acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and executive director and chair of the Center for Homeland Security and Immigration at the America First Policy Institute.

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House GOP Offers Border Crisis Solutions Will Sound Policies ... - America First Policy Institute